But the officers who came for them did not find them in the prison, so they returned and reported,

At times you were publicly exposed to abuse and afflictions, and at other times you came to share with others who were treated in that way.

Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to conduct ourselves rightly in every respect.

For by speaking high-sounding but empty words they are able to entice, with fleshly desires and with debauchery, people who have just escaped from those who reside in error.

‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the fallen tent of David; I will rebuild its ruins and restore it,

in case I am delayed, to let you know how people ought to conduct themselves in the household of God, because it is the church of the living God, the support and bulwark of the truth.

And if you address as Father the one who impartially judges according to each one’s work, live out the time of your temporary residence here in reverence.

For our reason for confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that with pure motives and sincerity which are from God – not by human wisdom but by the grace of God – we conducted ourselves in the world, and all the more toward you.

among whom all of us also formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest…